Last month, a mom wrote to me about these cool magnets that she just picked up:
Hi Dr. Gwenn,
I recently purchased a fun product from a company called Simple Memory Art (www.SimpleMemoryArt.com ) called a 50 Healthy Foods magnet set. It's a really cool item actually -- it's a magnet set that lists the major food groups, has them color coded in rainbow-like colors, and tells you everything about the food -- vitamins, calories, grams of fat, protein, etc. It's REALLY helpful and it makes my fridge look happier too!
The magnets are perfect for anyone who already maintains a healthy lifestyle and sees it as a great novelty magnet set to add to their fridge, or for those looking to eat a little healthier. It's ideal for families too, especially to encourage children to adopt healthier eating habits. Here's a direct link to an image of the product.
Have a great day!
All the best,
Marissa
So, I wrote the company who graciously sent me a sample set to check out for myself. As Marissa so well described, they are indeed colorful and useful. My kids, ages 9 and 12, have found them easy to read and understand. THey are already at ages where they've begun to learn about food groups and calories so have found them fun and interesting.
As a pediatrician and mom, I have to agree with Marissa that these are worth having at home. The only way our kids will learn how to eat healthy as they get older and shop smartly is to understand how to read labels. The magnets are organized very similarly to a food label with all the same elements you'll see on every day products at the market.
But, for daily nutrition, the color coding of the magnets allows our kids to visually learn which food groups are higher and lower in calories and how grouping different foods together changes the calories of a meal. You can have endless fun with your kids tossing together different imaginary meals to show your kids what that does to the calorie scale.
The magnets are also coded with serving size information, vitamins and minerals so as your kids get older they can add more layers of nutrtion knowledge to their vocabulary. The set comes with a master index magnet for all the symbols. Here's what some sample magnets look like:
Simple Memory Art has truly lived up to it's name with this product all around and has kept the price at a level that that fits the product.
A big thanks to Marissa for tipping me off to this fun and inexpensive learning tool.
My Final 2cents: 
(Images: www.simplememoryart.com web site) |
